Claire Comes Home

This past Wednesday Sen. McCaskill announced that over the past three months her campaign had raised an astounding $5.8 million, according to the Springfield News-Leader. This news arrived on the heels of two new poll releases that put McCaskill six points ahead of Rep. Akin, just weeks after sources had begun to hint at a resurgence by the Republican nominee.

Our past few posts covered her strong showing in the debate and strong words in press releases on such issues as the economy and health care. But as her campaign garners more national attention, McCaskill still manages to keep the local issues on the agenda so that those at home, and in the Senate, do not forget what she - and Missouri- value most. One of these issues is especially out-of-place at the political round table: post offices.

Rural post offices may not matter to MSNBC or Politico.com, but they matter to an important Missouri constituency, and to Claire. According to the STL Beacon, McCaskill has been a long-time advocate of rural post offices, including supporting Saturday mail delivery. According to her website, while in the Senate she helped pass an amendment for a one-year moratorium on the closings of rural post offices.

This campaign to support the U.S. Postal Service comes in the face of near-indomitable adversity: the postal service has closed branches around the nation and recently offered 3,000 of its mail handlers separation incentives to ease the financial strain on the organization, according to Government Executive.

With the kind of issue that appeals to a specific, and notably singular, audience, McCaskill must first localize the issue, which she has done both on paper and on the Senate floor:





She talks about the post office like it was a character in a pastoral novel: local, humble, yet a fundamental part of the rural Missouri story. Backed by statistics, she protects the post office like it's part of her family. She characterizes it as an unwitting victim of a larger campaign to forget rural voters. For Missouri voters who care, this kind of appeal could be incredibly persuasive.

In spite of the home-spun stories, she doesn't characterize the post office as a simple country organization. "The strength of our postal service has been that it's reliable, that it's affordable, and that it goes to the very last mile." She places the post office at the center of the community, a place of gathering and necessity that the young and old depend on.

McCaskill has adeptly forced an often-overlooked issue into the hearts of Americans and Missourians.